The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for packaging articles.
It is known to package articles by wrapping them in flexible sheet material such as, for example, highly stretched synthetic plastics film. An article, or a group of articles, is typically enclosed between two sheets of material or a folded single sheet and the material is heat sealed at overlapping edges.
A continuous process for wrapping articles in material of this kind is described in international patent application WO 90109316 which discloses a longitudinal wrapping machine whereby articles are wrapped by winding a continuous web of wrapping material around the articles in a direction generally transverse to their direction of movement along the machine. This results in the articles being wrapped by a helical continuous web of material. The machine has an upstream conveyor that is separated from a downstream conveyor by a rotary ring-type web applicator whose rotary axis is generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the conveyors. The articles are fed to the applicator by the upstream conveyor and as they pass through the ring of the applicator at a predetermined speed it rotates and dispenses the wrapping material. As a result, the articles are wrapped by a continuous helical band of material. The wrapped articles pass to the downstream conveyor which carries them to a cutting station. A longitudinal web of material disposed on the conveyors passes through the applicator and is transported under the articles at the same rate. This web serves to bridge the gap between the upstream and downstream conveyors and thus supports the articles as they pass continuously between them.
The machine referred to above has been used successfully in commercial applications but is relatively complex. There is a desire to simplify the machine and to improve its versatility.